Prototyping a connected piggy bank

This is a really cool idea. I'm particularly impressed with the small details that together make this project work.

As it so happens I was introduced to the Particle Photon during a hackathon this weekend, and here it is again. It looks like it's a great little controller to work with and probably should be on my list of things to pick up soon.

I can just see the commercial version of this. "You now have enough money to buy Pokemon Double Crisis. Would you like to buy it now?"

The technical side of the project is awesome, but the rationale of "digital piggy-banks" seem somewhat questionable to me.

First of all, there is still a long way (and a good number of discussions) to go until we have a 100% cashless society. So is it really necessary today that children deal with bank accounts and e-commerce before they even completely grasped the concept of money? Moreso, this seems to tie "dealing with money" inextricably to the smartphone. A bad idea if you want to teach children to get away from computers now and then.

Second, the children seem to have a lot less agency than with an actual piggy-bank: With a normal piggy-bank, the children are given money and can decide for themselves if they want to save it or spend it on the next ice-cream stand. (Even if they have to disobey their parents to do this, it's still a choice). With digital cash, the parents/relatives/etc aren't giving the money to the kid anymore, they're sending it directly to the piggy-bank. There is nothing the kids themselves can/have to do anymore.

Both the OP project and the one Asturaz posted seem to have recognized this as a shortcoming and tried to fix it by adding some longime planning options ("you can choose what you want to save for") or some actions without consequences so there is at least something that the kid can do. But I think those provide a very differenct concept of "choice" than a normal piggy-bank does.

Again, the concrete projects are pretty cool and this is more a general rant and not supposed to be criticism of the blog author.

A New Zealand bank has made this one: https://cleverkash.asb.co.nz

Obvious there's a certain advantage to already being a bank for projects like this.

a kickstarer project which have observed se same issue with cashless society https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/187482891/ernittm-the-s...

Really beautiful way to make an account physical. Oink!

i love it!